The Iowa State University student finished seventh in Heat Three of the men’s 1500m on Friday, clocking 3:40.26, a result that saw him miss out on the three automatic qualification slots for the final.
It was another disappointing outing for Lagat at the global indoor stage, having also fallen short on his debut at the 2024 edition in Nanjing, where he finished third in Heat Four and failed to progress.
“I didn’t go through to the final because I didn’t finish in the top three. I did my best,” he said.
Lagat admitted the race did not unfold as he had hoped despite putting in maximum effort.
The Kenyan lined up in Poland under scrutiny after he had earlier been provisionally suspended by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya over whereabouts failures.
However, he successfully appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that there were insufficient grounds to bar him from competition while the case is still ongoing.
Following the ruling, Athletics Kenya included him in the national team, as he was the only Kenyan athlete to have attained the qualifying time for the men’s 1500m.
Competing in Heat Three, Lagat struggled to keep pace with the leading pack and crossed the line in seventh place, bringing his World Indoor campaign to an early end.
